Word.ws English Dictionary

tardy

UK/ˈtɑːdi//ˈtɑɹdi/

tardy adjective: late; overdue or delayed.

Adjective

tardy (comparative tardier, superlative tardiest)

  1. Late; overdue or delayed.
    • He yawned, then raised a tardy hand over his mouth.
    • When everything is ended, then you come. / These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, / One time or other break some gallows’ back.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
    Synonyms:
    belated, delayed
  2. Moving with a slow pace or motion; not swift.
    • […] fashions in proud Italy, / Whose manners still our tardy apish nation / Limps after in base imitation.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
    • Nor should their Age by Yeares be told: / Whose Souls, more swift then Motion, clime; / And check the tardy Flight of Time.1638, George Sandys, “(please specify the part or chapter)”, in A Paraphrase upon the Divine Poems, London: […] Iohn Legatt, →OCLC
  3. Ineffectual; slow-witted, slow to act, or dull.
    • His tardy performance bordered on incompetence.
  4. (obsolete) Unwary; unready (especially in the phrase take (someone) tardy).
    • Be not ta’en tardy by unwise delay.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • Yield, Scoundrel base (quoth she) or die; / Thy life is mine, and liberty. / But if thou think’st I took thee tardy, / And dar’st presume to be so hardy, / To try thy fortune o’re afresh, / I’le wave my title to thy flesh,1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto III.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678...
  5. (obsolete) Criminal; guilty.
    • And the Franks served the Men much the same ſauce when they found them tardy, and made them run their Heats through the Streets1697, Jeremy Collier, Essays upon Several Moral Subjects

Noun

tardy (plural tardies)

  1. (US) A piece of paper given to students who are late to class.
    • The teacher gave her a tardy because she did not come into the classroom until after the bell.
  2. (US) An instance of a student's being marked as tardy by a teacher on the teacher's attendance sheet.

Verb

tardy (third-person singular simple present tardies, present participle tardying, simple past and past participle tardied)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make tardy.
    • the good mind of Camillo tardied
      My swift commandc. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (intransitive, rare) To dawdle.
    • Sitting there on the rock behind the school, I heard nothing but the occasional raised voice of some youngster tardying on his way home, and the joints in the schoolhouse squeaking from the frost.2001, Donna Morrissey, Kit's Law, page 86

Proper noun capitalized: Tardy

Tardy (plural Tardys)

  1. A surname.

tardy meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

tardy in Tamil

மசணையான, மெத்தனமான, மெல்ல நகருகிற, தாமதமான, அசட்டைத்தனமான, பின்தங்குகிற

tardy in Urdu

tardy, lazy
آہستہ āhista

tardy in Malayalam

മെല്ലെനടക്കുന്ന, ഉഴപ്പുന്ന, താമസംവരുത്തുന്ന

tardy in Kannada

ಮೆಲ್ಲಗಿನ, ತಡವಾದ, ತಗಹಾದ, ನಿಧಾನವಾದ, ವಿಳಂಬಿಸಿದ, ಆಲಸ್ಯದಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ
More languagesFewer languages
tardy in Sanskrit
मन्दर mandara
tardy in Tagalog
gutoy

Examples of tardy in a sentence

  • Men of genius anticipate their contemporaries, and know they are such, long before the tardy consent of the public.1795, Isaac D’Israeli, chapter 9, in An Essay on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character, London: T. Cadell Jr. and W. Davies...
  • As a matter of fact, the luncheon fare, when it made its tardy appearance, was distinctly unworthy of the reputation which the justly-treasured cook had built up for herself.1914, Saki, “The Stake”, in Beasts and Super-Beasts, London: John Lane, pages 202–203:
  • And the Black Muslims, along with many people who are not Muslims, no longer wish for a recognition so grudging and (should it ever be achieved) so tardy.1963, James Baldwin, “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind”, in The Fire Next Time, New York: Dial, page 87:
  • In various Views she tries her constant Theme; / Finds him, in Councils, and in Arms, the same: / When certain to o’ercome, inclin’d to save; / Tardy to Vengeance; and with Mercy brave.1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “Carmen Seculare, For the Year 1700. To the King”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […]...

All 15 example sentences with tardy

Synonyms of tardy

Forms of tardy

Adjective
comparativetardier
superlativetardiest
Noun
pluraltardies
Verb
third-person singular presenttardies
present participletardying
past participletardied
pasttardied
Proper noun
pluralTardys

Origin of tardy

From an earlier tardive, from French tardif, from Late Latin tardīvus, from Latin tardus (“slow”, “sluggish”), of obscure origin.

Words formed from tardy

Phrases with tardy

Words that rhyme with tardy

Questions about tardy

What does tardy mean?
Tardy means late; overdue or delayed.
What is tardy in Tamil?
Tardy in Tamil is மசணையான, மெத்தனமான, மெல்ல நகருகிற. See Tardy meaning in Tamil.
How do you use tardy in a sentence?
Men of genius anticipate their contemporaries, and know they are such, long before the tardy consent of the public.
What part of speech is tardy?
Tardy can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tardy?
Tardy is pronounced /ˈtɑːdi/ (UK).

Words near tardy in the dictionary

  1. tardling
  2. tardlings
  3. tardo
  4. tardos
  5. tards
  6. tardy
  7. tardy slip
  8. tardy slips
  9. tardying
  10. tardyon
  11. tardyonic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tardy (page history and authors); Tardy (page history and authors); tardy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); آہستہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); tardy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tardy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “tardy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tardy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.